Jafeth turns 7

We just celebrated Jafeth's 7 th birthday. The whole day was his special time. We had a traditional Honduran meal, watched a movie, and of course he received a few presents. Everyone had a great time. What a happy kid. Enjoy the moment with us.

The broken leg

We were just having normal playground time. Only 10 minutes before all of us were to head home for dinner. At the top of a 5 foot platform, Darwin decided to go to the opposite side of the ladder and make his way down. In the blink of an eye, Darwin was sitting on the ground screaming and crying while gripping his thigh. I was by his side fervently praying I wasn't going to encounter blood or anything else gross. To no avail because his shin had a weird contortion and was swelling rapidly. 3-1/2 hrs later the main ordeal was behind us. The next 6 weeks will be a challenge due to no pressure on the foot, aka: no walking. Fractured bones can surely make for a memorable Christmas season this year. Karen
The first picture is our 1 hour ride to the hospital. The second is after returning home. Last is a video of Darwin telling his story.

Another New Family Member

It's been 3 months of Darwin being the only boy in the house. Winds of change are blowing. Earlier this week, we welcomed Jafeth to our home. This guy is 6 years old (just shy of seven) and speaks only Spanish. We have lots of help from the ranch families here and all the ministry kids are bilingual.Jafeth is in the 1st grade here at Ebenezer Academy and loves it (see his 1st day of school pictures). It's fun to have an elementary age boy again! Darwin and Jafeth are blending and we pray the upcoming days stay positive.
Our Spanish speaking skills are sharpening at an amazing rate, but Jafeth will probably become bilingual way before us. Keep praying! Seriously, He is a delight in every way and please thank God with us that he is now a part of our family. Just thought you all should be updated as soon as possible.
We'll be posting more pictures soon (including the main page picture of our family), so please keep coming back.

Dave, Karen, Katie and Emily

Chicken A La Stitch

Just to set the stage. We signed up for 4 medical classes that were offered at the Ranch to be taught by a RN, Sheila. This was the class I was dreading most. “How to suture/stitch a wound”. Medical stuff and body fluids make me woozy and have caused me to dry heave many times. I was ready this time with my walking gear on and ready to bolt at a moment’s notice. Dave on the other hand was giddy and ready to immerse himself wholeheartedly. I think he would have cut up the whole piece of chicken we had to work on, just to stitch it back together. I wanted to fry it and enjoy some potato salad on the side. We were both proud of ourselves for learning to do the procedure and mastering it. The other classes offered were great and we learned that it is never too late to learn! I am absolutely certain there will be no surprise calling from God for me to work anywhere in the medical field and any and all emergencies in our home will be referred to Dave every time.

Dave's recent hike up the mountain

Recently, Jason Mays and I hiked up a mountain for about an hour to an old homestead of one of our neighbors. Jason is one of the teachers and house dads here at Rancho Ebenezer.

The home, which is now abandoned, belongs to Don Jesús, pictured here with Jason. He grew up here as a young boy farming with his family. He is very proud of his heritage and where he comes from and wanted to share that with us. The view from up there was amazing.

You can see engravings in the large stones that are on the property. Don Jesús remembers them being there before his family settled more than 50 years ago. No one seems to know what language they are or who engraved them. Notice the picture of the musket, there was also a picture of a sword.

It was a long and steep walk but very enjoyable getting to know one of our neighbors on the mountain road.

Pictures of our kids with some new friends

Some recent family shots

Here are some current pictures of us just being "us" around the Ranch.

Katie is showing her painting that she did with Darwin. You can see Darwin's picture on an earlier blog post.

Emily has painted her face for the big soccer game that took place at the Ranch between the Bridge House and the boys here. She later discovered that this concoction of red that her and Katie made, would not come off. This led to some pretty stressful moments. Ask her about it.

Karen is shown here with some of her new friends. From left to right: Kimberly (our Ranch social worker), Kim (wife of director Eric), Mirian (another house mom), Ceci (Honduran office worker), and of course Karen on the right.

The last photo is of Dave & Karen hanging around with Edgar on the compo (playground).

Emily's Birthday Bash

We recently celebrated Emily's 14th birthday. All of the older kids at the Ranch were invited and some adults showed up too. We did smores over a fire (with saltine crackers that Katie thought were graham crackers), had way too many snacks, and played Wii. A Honduran tradition here (at least they tell us it is) is to "egg" the person on their birthday. Emily had it in her hair, on her face, and all over her clothing. Nice.

We hope she enjoyed her birthday here. She is growing up quickly and turning into a beautiful young lady.

"SUPERGUY"

We found this old hard hat in the workshop, and Darwin fell in love with it. He immediately started wearing it backwards and calling himself "SUPERGUY". After running into many things and falling down often, Dave drilled two eye holes in the back of the helmet. Problem solved.

Art Work

The girls and Karen are turning Darwin into quite the artist. Karen painted chalkboard paint on the wall and allows Darwin to keep it decorated.

Some new pictures of our Honduran child - Darwin

Challenged in so many ways.....................

God bless you all for your patience! You have no idea how many times I have tried to connect with you through this crazy blog. The problem is how electronically-techy challenged I am. Thanks to my new high tech friend, Jason for getting me out of the mess I had made for myself. If any of you have any helpful instruction for this blog, let me have it! All of us have safely survived the political chaos here in Honduras and have reaffirmed the fact that politics are not in our future. At least here. It has been 2 months on foreign soil and we are actually adjusting and growing to like the majority of our lives. You will hear a bit of what we don't like because it makes some good stories. Actually,none of us should ever get too comfortable where we are because there are so many other experiences we would miss. Granted, I miss Wisconsin but I see Honduras and am so glad that I haven't missed this. I promise you photos, videos and anything else I can offer you to experience and enjoy our life. It will be worth the wait. I promise. Until then, let me know you are out there as my audience/connection to the world around me. Take care of each other...........Karen & Fam

In the beginning...

This is the first post of the Porter Family blog. We're heading to Honduras!